The Morning Heresy 5/21/12: A Deep and Undulating Whoop

May 21, 2012

This was no egg-headed snoozer, this was no reiteration of why we like Darwin so much (not that there's anything wrong with those). The Women in Secularism conference was as fantastic, fulfilling, and enlightening an event as we could ever have hoped. Once a glimmer in Melody Hensley's eye, it brought together an excellent mix of thinkers and personalities that had everyone opening their eyes to new perspectives. (Oh, and Jennifer Michael Hecht gave a poetry reading -- how cool is that?) There's a lot already, as you'll see below, that's being said about this past weekend, and I'm sure it's only the beginning.

Luckily for all those who could not attend, it was entirely possible to absorb a great deal of the conference 140 characters at a time. The hashtag #wiscfi will give you the full stream, which included summaries, updates, reactions, jokes, rants, pictures, and resources of all types. Other than the super-amazing official CFI twitter account (run by some guy), other great tweeps that covered the conference included @surlyamy, @abiodork, @kropotkin, CFI-NY's own @_stephanieleroy, and @szvan, who I somehow managed not to meet. There were many, many others, too, but these were the folks that popped up most often from my vantage point.

There was also some great live-blogging of the conference, which is awesome. Here's Ophelia's and Ashley Miller's work (and did you know she did ukulele videos? I love this movement sometimes). Also, Kim Rippere has a wrap-up, gives us an A+

The Clergy Project's Catherine Dunphy is bullish on the impact of the conference:

So now that the conference has wrapped and we have heard one another's voices and been challenged by the scope of systemic sexism, both in the west and thanks to Wafa Sultan; in the Islamic world, what can we do? If being a member of the Clergy Project has taught me anything, it is that we must keep talking, working and deconstructing these ideologies, both religious and cultural, that limit the full expression of women and our lived experiences.

Before the conference, Minnesota Atheists' Atheist Talkinterviews our boss Ron Lindsay on secularism, the need for the WiS conference, ethics, and more

Stephanie Zvan, in the form of a dialogue, runs with Jen McCreight's reminder that there is an insidious issue of poorly-behaving men at secularist events

EmilyHasBooks rounds up a group of followable female tweeters in honor of the conference

And just as we showed up for the big event, a UFO had just visited the District

Fascinating piece by Jodi Kantor in NYT on the major influence Mormonism has over Mitt Romney, despite how quiet he is about it in the campaign:

. . . take Mr. Romney’s frequent tributes to American exceptionalism. “I refuse to believe that America is just another place on the map with a flag,” he said in announcing his bid for the presidency last June. Every presidential candidate highlights patriotism, but Mr. Romney’s is backed by the Mormon belief that the United States was chosen by God to play a special role in history, its Constitution divinely inspired.

And if Romney succeeds in "mainstreaming" Mormonism, Noah Feldman sees some reason for caution:

If Mormons think of themselves as another Christian denomination, the risk of defection rises. The distinctive Mormon beliefs in a new scripture and in the possibility of joining the supernal realm for eternal life will come into jeopardy precisely because they mark differences with the Protestant mainstream. If you believe you are not that different from others, there will be a tendency to downplay those practices and beliefs that suggest otherwise.

#4 Stephanie Zvan (Guest) on Monday May 21, 2012 at 1:58pm

I don’t think there is enough coffee in the world to have turned all our exhausted minds smart again that morning. And yet (and yet!) everybody on stage was still brilliant. I don’t understand how they did that.

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Paul Fidalgo has been communications director of the Center for Inquiry since 2012. He holds a master’s degree in political management from George Washington University, and has worked previously for FairVote: The Center for Voting and Democracy and the Secular Coalition for America. Paul is also an actor and musician whose work includes five years performing with the American Shakespeare Center. He lives in Maine with his wife and kids. His blog at the Patheos network is iMortal, and he tweets at @paulfidalgo.